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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23507077">Celebration</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavy_cream/pseuds/heavy_cream'>heavy_cream</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Unraveling of Spring [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tiger &amp; Bunny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Birthday, Birthday Presents, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Misunderstandings, Schmoop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:06:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23507077</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavy_cream/pseuds/heavy_cream</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“But, birthdays are important,” Kotetsu insisted following Barnaby. They had had the argument a million times before and it always ended the same way, with Bunny being annoyed and Kotetsu feeling upset.</p><p>“I don’t care for mine,” Barnaby snapped back his irritation skirting close to anger.</p><p>Kotetsu reached out for him, touching his arm, making Bunny face him. “I care about it,” he said seriously.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Unraveling of Spring [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691416</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>90</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Celebration</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Woefully unbetaed.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Barnaby gave the punching bag one last kick before he turned to face the persistent stare. “What is it?” He asked irritated by the interruption.</p><p>“Tomorrow is the thirty-first,” Kotetsu said and earned himself a sigh.</p><p>“This again, I’ve told you I don’t want to do anything about it.” Bunny grabbed the towel from the bench and rubbed the perspiration away from his neck as he turned towards the locker rooms in order to shower and change.</p><p>“But, birthdays are important,” Kotetsu insisted following Barnaby. They had had the argument a million times before and it always ended the same way, with Bunny being annoyed and Kotetsu feeling upset.</p><p>“I don’t care for mine,” Barnaby snapped back his irritation skirting close to anger.</p><p>Kotetsu reached out for him, touching his arm, making Bunny face him. “I care about it,” he said seriously.</p><p>“What’s gotten into you?” he asked genuinely confused, Kotetsu usually knew by now when to drop it. “I thought that after the… <i>Bunny </i>incident, you had agreed to give it a rest. You didn’t even bring it up last year.”</p><p>“Well yeah, but this year it’s different,” Kotetsu replied, softer but still stubborn, and stepping closer slid his hand down the arm to rub his fingertips against Barnaby’s open palm, “<i>this</i> is different,” he said linking their hands together.</p><p>Barnaby let out a sigh that was in part annoyance, in part defeat and mostly endearment. “You are such an idiot,” he said and tugged on Kotetsu’s shirt with his other hand. “I know things are different now... but that doesn’t change the fact that tomorrow means nothing to me.”</p><p>Kotetsu gave him that kicked puppy look that went straight to Barnaby’s soft spot. He sighed again. It was so stupid to be fighting about this. “Please, can we not talk about this anymore? If you want to make me happy then just let tomorrow be another day.”</p><p>Kotetsu gave him an unreadable look and then seemed to reach a conclusion. “Alright,” he nodded suddenly very determined. “I’ll go over tomorrow, and not celebrate your birthday. Just an ordinary day, right?”</p><p>“R-right,” Barnaby replied having a bad feeling about it all.</p><p>“It’s settled then,” Kotetsu said cheerfully and gave him an impulsive kiss before turning back. “I’ll go finish my workout,” he explained and left whistling.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>***</i>
  </p>
</div>“This was such a waste of time,” Kotetsu complained as they made their way through the Apollon office. They had just spent two hours and only heaven knew how many resources, trying to apprehend some suspects, only to have them run into the hands of the police. It’s not that Kotetsu really minded… ok screw it, he did. They had done all the chasing and bullet dodging - and considering his <b>One Minute</b> condition that was saying quite a bit - only to lose the catch at the end.<p>“You got it the worse,” Bunny said, reaching out to rub his thumb over Kotetsu cheekbone, where a cut had been treated.</p><p>“Ah come on, it’s not that bad. Didn’t expect him to throw that knife though.”</p><p>“You have to be more careful," Barnaby chided and Kotetsu sulked.</p><p>“I am careful,” Kotesu replied sourly though his partner was right. He’d been distracted the entire day already. He was just glad they would be going home soon. Smiling at the prospect he entered the lounge and got a face full of confetti for it.</p><p>“Happy Birthday!” The team cheered excitedly and both of them froze on the spot. The room was cheerily decorated with balloons and ribbons, a large banner hanging overhead, cake and drinks on a table. Party hats on every head. </p><p>“W-what is this?” Bunny stammered, swallowing hard once and studiously not looking at Kotetsu.</p><p>“A surprise for you handsome!” Nathan cooed sauntering over to take him by the arm and pulling him into the room towards the rest of the heroes.</p><p>“Congratulations! And again, Congratulations!”</p><p>“You guys sure took long to get back,” Antonio complained and Karina elbowed him.</p><p>“We were worried that the surprise would fail again!” Karina explained and handed Bunny a small, gift-wrapped box. “It’s a small thing, from all of us.”</p><p>“Ah- t-thank you,” Bunny replied clearly uncomfortable but putting on a good face. He set the present aside, accepted something to drink and refused the cake. He focused on talking to Karina and Nathan and didn't look at Kotetsu out of fear he would just explode right then and there. However, Kotetsu could be incredibly dense at times, which is why he crossed the room to talk to him.</p><p>"Bunny-"</p><p>"Excuse me for a moment," Barnaby said to Karina and turned to leave the lounge and as predicted, Kotetsu followed him.</p><p>“Bunny,” he called after him and Barnaby turned, the fury clearly etched on his face.</p><p>“Leave me be.”</p><p>“No, wait-“ he said taking a hold of him and Bunny whirled around to face him.</p><p>“You did this!” Barnaby accused in a harsh whisper, hands balled into fists. “After I told you over and over again that I didn’t want anything, you went ahead and did this.”</p><p>“Bunny-“</p><p>“Don’t Bunny me!” he said, his voice close to a shout, shaking himself free from Kotetsu’s grip. “I knew you wouldn’t let this just be, even after you said you would, I had this feeling and I was right. Just-” Bunny broke off, “leave me be, will you?” he finished coldly. Kotetsu stood still for a moment just looking at him and then nodded.</p><p>"Alright," he said with a sad smile, turned and walked away. Instead of relief, Bunny felt weary by it all. Why wouldn't he just <i>listen</i>. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and just wished the day would be over already. Nothing good came from his birthday, he had learned that lesson a long time ago. He turned when he heard a noise and saw Karina standing at the door, her frown a clear sign that she’d overheard the argument. </p><p>The day couldn’t possibly get worse.</p><p>“Karina, I’m sorry-“</p><p>“You are an idiot,” she interrupted him.</p><p>“Excuse me?”</p><p>“You are an idiot!” She repeated with more force and he had the feeling she was holding back from poking him in the chest. “You shouldn’t just go on assuming things, you should know that Tiger always keeps his promises.”</p><p>“What does that have to do with anything?”</p><p>“He didn’t know about this,” she said and watched as Bunny froze. "This was our idea, we wanted to do something for you.”</p><p>“What” Bunny repeated dumbly.</p><p>She stared at him furiously for another moment before letting out an annoyed sigh and resting her fists on her hips. “I swear, all men are all hopeless. I expected more from you to be honest. You really should have known better.”</p><p>“I should have," he agreed then, pressed fingertips against his temples hoping to abate the headache he felt brewing. “I’m sorry, for what I said before. I don’t-“ he let out a sigh and finally looked at her. “This day is… hard for me. I don’t like thinking about it.”</p><p>He looked down the corridor where Kotetsu had left and felt the knotted up stress at the back of his head. Why had he been so angry anyway? Because his friends, people who he hadn’t been particularly kind to, had gone out of the way to celebrate his birthday, to even get him a present? Because he thought that his lover would have cared to celebrate the day he was born. Right now, it really didn’t seem like he deserved any of it.</p><p>“I’m not good with surprises,” he said lamely and Karina sighed.</p><p>“You are not good at a lot of things.” At his honest, sorrow-filled face, she finally caved. “Have some cake with us, and we’ll call it even,” she said and opened the door to the room again. He stood for a moment longer in the hallway, looking down the way Kotetsu had gone. He went back to his party, accepted his cake, and thought about what he could possibly do to apologize to Kotetsu.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>***</i>
  </p>
</div>In the end, he couldn’t figure what to say to Kotetsu, wasn’t even sure the man would answer his call. Defeated and burdened by his own brooding mood he drove home and wearily entered his apartment.<p>“Welcome home.”</p><p>Bunny startled at the voice and turned to see Kotetsu step out of the kitchen toweling his hands dry.</p><p>“You are here,” Barnaby said dumbly.</p><p>“Yes, I’m sorry,” Kotetsu apologized in a rush, genuinely anguished and succeeded in making Bunny feel about a hundred times worse than he already did.</p><p>“No- I’m-“ This wasn’t going well at all. “Karina told me. They figured that if they’d asked me as they had done in the past, I would just refuse again. You had no idea.”</p><p>“No, but I should have known they might do something like this. I’m sorry for that,” Kotetsu said rubbing a hand over his neck and just stood there, not knowing whether he should get closer or not.</p><p>“You…” Bunny started and swallowed back something that horribly felt like a sob lodged in his throat. He always did things like these, was always ready to take the blame if it meant that it would make things alright again. “You are unbelievable. You did nothing wrong, I did,” he insisted and stepped closer, stopping an arms length away and watched Kotetsu smile.</p><p>“You didn’t do anything, Bunny,” he replied softly and the easy acceptance grated on Barnaby’s frayed nerves.</p><p>“I accused you, shouted at you, I threw your trust in your face. And then…" his breath hitched, “and then you still come here, knowing that I might very well keep accusing you, and fighting you, you are still here,” he finished, the misery flooding back all at once, making his chest ache and his throat feel tight.</p><p>“Where else would I be?” Kotesu replied smiling and closed the distance between them. “I know you don’t like this day, and it has been harder on you than it should have been and now you are hurting and I’m sorry,” he said stopping to stand in front of his partner.</p><p>“Kotetsu,” Bunny said in a voice full of awful tears and stood there, in the middle of his living room and stared at the small box in his hands, afraid that the tears would spill if he gave in to his desire to hold Kotetsu.</p><p>“Barnaby,” Kotetsu murmured and reached out, pulled him into a hug and sighed relieved when Bunny immediately clutched at his shirt and buried his face in his neck. Kotetsu stroke a hand down the blond locks, rubbed his cheek against them, glad that he could do that.</p><p>“Don’t call me that,” Barnaby murmured, relieved he could hide his face. “It sounds weird when you call me that.”</p><p>“So, Bunny then?” Kotetsu asked smiling and Barnaby mumbled something he assumed meant that it was alright. He stepped back and cradled Bunny’s cheek.</p><p>“I also wanted to say sorry because I did have something planned for you, here at home,” Kotetsu explained.</p><p>“What was it?” Barnaby said and cleared his throat.</p><p>Kotetsu looked uncomfortable. “No-it’s-“</p><p>“I want to know,” Bunny insisted stubbornly, and Kotetsu smiled.</p><p>“Alright, come here then,” he ordered, pulling him towards the center of the room and then leaving him to turn off the lights and do something with a remote. After a few moments, a soft jazzy tune filled the room. </p><p>He watched Kotetsu walk towards him in the dark. “Music?” He asked and then Kotetsu was circling his waist with an arm and taking his hand with the other. </p><p>“Dancing,” Kotetsu answered, settling the blonde against his body.</p><p>“Dancing?”</p><p>“Slow dancing,” Kotetsu elaborated, pressing their clasped hands against his chest, pulling his partner closer and gently swayed from one side to the other.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“I was thinking about your birthday and thought that maybe you didn’t like the whole cake and confetti thing because it reminded you of the last one you had with your parents. So instead of trying to… recreate that, I thought that we would do something new.”</p><p>“New,” Barnaby repeated, looking at Kotetsu who was barely a breath away.</p><p>“Yes to, ah, mark the date if you don’t want to celebrate. So instead of cake, and parties, we’ll just dance, like this, just you and me, in the dark, against the lights of the city.” He pressed his cheek against Barnaby’s, turning them in a lazy circle.</p><p>Bunny felt his throat grow tight again, felt the tears lodge themselves in his chest so that he was afraid his next breath would be a sob. This was ridiculous. This man, this old, wonderful, amazing, man was ridiculous.</p><p>“Thank you,” he choked out, burying his face in his partner’s neck, hoping he didn’t sound as pathetic as he felt.</p><p>“Any time,” he replied as if he just hadn’t done something akin to a miracle.</p><p>“I have never danced like this before,” Barnaby said after a moment.</p><p>“It’s easy, just, let me hold you, like this,” Kotetsu explained swaying from one side to another, the lithe body in his arms warm and relaxed, pliable to his touch. “See? That’s it,” he murmured, slowly turning in another circle, following a rhythm that was their own.</p><p>After a moment Barnaby said, “I could do this, to, you know, mark the date.”</p><p>Kotetsu pressed a soft kiss against his hair. “Happy Birthday, Bunny”</p><p>Barnaby smiled. “Yes, it is.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>***</i>
  </p>
</div>Kotetsu pressed a trail of soft kisses down Barnaby’s shoulder enjoying the taste of the warm, damp skin. There was always something alluring about his back, the play of muscle, the set of the shoulders, the curve of the spine, that made it seem elegant, and lithe and strong. He moved away the hair to lay a lazy, smiling kiss to the neck.<p>“You look pleased,” Barnaby murmured.</p><p>“I am pleased,” Kotetsu replied and nipped a shoulder gently and then his stomach growled. He grinned unrepentantly. “How about some breakfast.”</p><p>“It never ceases to amaze me how you go from attractive to ungracious in two seconds.”</p><p>“And here I was thinking about making you waffles,” Kotetsu sighed dramatically.</p><p>“Can you make waffles?”</p><p>“Well now you’ll never know,” he replied cheekily and got up, standing completely nude looking around the room.</p><p>“They are in the living room,” Barnaby said, shifting to look at him better. “Your pants,” he added.</p><p>“Right,” Kotetsu said and walked out of the room. Bunny hugged the pillow and watched him until he vanished from his sight. With a contented sigh, he pressed his face into the pillow. He was never much of a morning person, but waking up in bed, surrounded by him, his warmth, his scent, was quite possibly the most wonderful thing he could have experienced. He trailed a hand over the empty space Kotetsu had left behind. They had known each other for almost five years, been… together for less than one, but even so, he couldn’t imagine not waking up like that anymore.</p><p>It was frightening.</p><p>Since he was feeling lonely, he dragged himself out of bed, slipped on his robe and went into the kitchen. Kotetsu had not only picked up his trousers and shirt, but had bothered to place the rest of their hastily discarded clothes over the back of the armchair.</p><p>“Are you really making waffles?” Bunny asked curious, when he noticed Kotetsu was whipping up some strange mixture in a bowl. Did he even own a waffle-maker?</p><p>“Do you even own a waffle-maker?” Kotetsu echoed his thoughts.</p><p>“I don’t think so.”</p><p>Kotetsu shook his head and stopped what he was doing long enough to hand Bunny a cup. He accepted the coffee gratefully. “How can you still not know what this apartment came with? You have been living here for, what? Five years?”</p><p>“Six. And I have never felt the desire to eat waffles.”</p><p>Kotetsu tapped his chest with a finger. “That’s not right. Next time we’ll make waffles, but for now, we’ll have omelets.”</p><p>Barnaby sipped his coffee, leaning against the counter and watched him move about. “You don’t have to make breakfast, you know? I usually skip this meal anyways.”</p><p>“See that’s not right either,” Kotetsu pointed at him with the spatula. “It’s not healthy to skip meals, and breakfast is the most important one of the day.”</p><p>“Maybe if someone is around to share it with me every day I just might stop skipping it.”</p><p>Kotetsu grinned and leaned in to brush a soft kiss against his lips. “That’s the plan, go sit down, these are almost done.”</p><p>Bunny moved to the table and noticed the small box from the day before. He had completely forgotten about it the night before. And then Kotetsu came with two loaded dishes and he set it aside for now. Kotetsu's cooking skills were confounding. He knew only a handful of dishes, and he knew how to make them well (like the omelets), but none of the dishes seemed to have any rhyme or reason to them. He was wondering about that when Kotetsu interrupted his train of thought.</p><p>“You should open it,” Kotetsu said after they had finished their meal.</p><p>“You just want to know what’s inside,” Bunny chided and helped clear the dishes. Kotetsu shrugged.</p><p>“Well… yeah, but the guys went through the trouble to get you something, so you should see what it is.”</p><p>Barnaby picked up the box, pulled at the ribbon. He smiled, surprised and endeared. </p><p>“What did you get?”</p><p>Bunny pulled out a small stuffed Tiger which had Kotetsu’s trademark tie in miniature. “I got you.”</p><p>Kotetsu laughed finishing off his own coffee and took the toy. “They really couldn’t find a bigger one? We got you a nice big Bunny that one time.”</p><p>“That’s alright,” Bunny said, placing the plush back in the box before stepping closer to Kotetsu. “I got the real thing.”</p><p>Kotetsu smiled, amusement and pleasure going through him. “Oh, so, I’m your present?”</p><p>“In more ways than one.”</p><p>“Well in that case,” Kotetsu picked on the ribbon and tied it around his neck in a bow. “There you go, happy birthday,” he said grinning and leaned in for a smiling kiss.</p><p>“Maybe I should go unwrap my present,” Bunny said fisting his hands in Kotetsu’s open shirt, tugging at it until he got it off.</p><p>“Maybe you should,” Kotetsu agreed, the lassitude he’d felt the entire morning quickly melting away into something more urgent.</p><p>“It’s the polite thing to do.”</p><p>“Good manners are hard to find nowadays,” Kotetsu agreed, already walking backwards towards the bedroom, while Bunny unhooked his trousers.</p><p>“One should always be grateful for other people’s efforts.”</p><p>“It’s part of a good upbringing…” Kotetsu trailed off when Bunny sucked on one of his earlobes.</p><p>“You want to keep talking or celebrate?”</p><p>Kotetsu’s legs hit the bed. “Celebrate, definitely celebrate,” he agreed, lifting his hand to tug at the bow, only to have it swatted away.</p><p>“No, no, keep the bow.” Bunny pushed him backward onto the bed, crawled on top of him and smiled. “I’ll take it off when I’m done playing with you.”</p><p>Kotetsu laughed and let himself be played with for the rest of the day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>9 years ago I published this on a now-defunct LJ under my old alias along with several other Tiger and Bunny fanfics. I have finally found the time and energy to review them so I can reupload them. Unlike <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475076">"Within a Forest Dark"</a> these ones are not too bad, and so I will post them in the next few days with only minor grammar/spelling corrections. I, unfortunately, don't remember the exact order (???) so I'm going by context clues.</p><p>I always love getting feedback so please let me know what you liked (or didn't like!) ♥ </p><p>Also idk how I feel about the title of the series so suggestions are REALLY welcomed ♥</p></blockquote></div></div>
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